Early Identification System: Followup of Those Students in the Kindergarten Class of 1978-79 Who Did Not Reach Grade 4 in 1982-83. Research Report 84-07.

Stennett, R. G.; Earl, L. M.

The purpose of this report is to describe the educational history, status, and standardized test performance of the least successful members of the kindergarten class of 1978-79. All 253 students who were in kindergarten for the first time in 1978-79, who had not reached grade 4 by 1982-83, and who were still in the system were included in the study. Variables available for study were sex; year and month of birth; early identification (EID) ratings for language and mathematics combined for 1978-79 and separate ratings for reading and mathematics for the school years 1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82, and 1982-83; indicators of each student's educational status in the fall of 1982 and 1983; Otis IQ and standard scores; and standard scores for the reading comprehension subtest of the California Test of Basic Skills, mathematics computation (London Math), mathematics problem solving (London), and an average of these three scores. (EID ratings are made by classroom teachers and school teams separately for language/reading and mathematics and consist of a scale that ranks a student's preparedness for the work of the next school year). Results of the follow-up study of the students, who reached grade 4 after an additional year of instruction, indicated that they did quite poorly on tests of academic ability and achievement. They tended to be disproportionately boys and to have been born in the latter half of the year. Their post-kindergarten early identification ratings were uniformly unfavorable. All of these trends are increasingly evident as the students' kindergarten EID ratings increase from one to three. A very substantial number of these students (44 percent) had EID ratings of 1 in kindergarten, and this constitutes a high false negative rate. (RH)